A new chapter is about to begin for both Diane Lane and Josh Brolin. As Us Weekly exclusively revealed on Thursday, Feb. 21, the Hollywood spouses of more than eight years are divorcing -- with an insider telling Us the split between Brolin, 45, and Lane, 48, is "very amicable . . . it's not ugly, it's just over."

But seven years ago, Oscar-nominated actress Lane was still very much in the honeymoon phase of her high-profile union -- and gushed to More magazine in March 2006 about her husband. She knew Brolin was a keeper, she said, because he was the first man with children that she ever dated. "I was fishing out of a different pond," Lane explained, "proof that I'd grown up and was ready for a deeper experience."

(Lane has a teenaged daughter, Eleanor, with ex-husband Christopher Lambert; Brolin and ex-wife Alice Adair share kids Trevor, 24, and Eden, 18.) "When I met Josh, I met someone I could parent with; it's hard to share that job and in some ways it's easier to do alone," Lane explained. "But mothers need to be told, 'Do your best. You're doing a good job. I see you struggle. You're not alone.'"

She and Brolin wed -- barefoot -- at the Brolin family ranch in Templeton, Calif. in August 2004, with his father James Brolin and wife Barbra Streisand looking on, and with their three kids taking part in the ceremony. "For bodyguards we had cowboy friends with shotguns, riding horses around the property," Lane told More. "It was quite effective and much more charming than having men in black with walkie-talkies."

The honeymoon took place before the wedding, while their daughters were at summer camp. "We drove through five states in a Jeep and slept in motels without reservations . . . I get on planes and dress up for work, so my idea of a good time is not the glamorous path. There is something about letting the universe provide for you that is very enlivening. You follow your gut and you feel more alive."

Gushed the former child actress: "It's euphoria to be in my own life with people who are real."

"She's a very strong woman, extremely strong," Brolin said of his wife just last month while promoting Gangster Squad. "We're not really in the spotlight. I mean, we are in times like this [junket interview], but, you know, there's one light. We just do our own thing, and we always have."